On Saturday 26th May @ 7.00pm in the Warehouse Charlie and Tania Deering invite you to join with them for a special Spanish Evening. They will be sharing about God's call on their lives to serve with ECM in Camarma, Spain. The invitation to share some Spanish food and hear from Charlie and Tania goes out to everyone who would like to hear more about their plans.
The Return – outline for teaching series May/June 2012
May 13th Talk 1 The promise
This opening talk in the series introduces the predictive element of the Bible and why it is so important (and extensive) and why the future is so important for us. It will raise the vital topic of hope and its importance to human life. Then we will focus on the specific promise of the coming of Messiah – tracing it through the OT, showing its fulfillment in the NT: seeking to build both our understanding of biblical prophecy and our trust in it. Finally we will see how the promise of the return of Jesus is a crucial part of the Gospel – 1 Thessalonians 1:9 – turning to God from idols, serving the living God and WAITING for his Son.
May 20th Talk 2 Kingdom come?
Jesus taught us to pray that God’s kingdom would come and his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. Did he really mean it, particularly the ‘on earth’ part? And what does the Bible mean by the ‘Kingdom of God’? This talk will look at the two big aspects: first, the reality of the coming King and his kingdom and second, the present reality of living under the rule of the King.
May 27th Talk 3 Signs of the end
This talk will look at Christ’s specific teaching about how we recognize and read the signs of the times (Luke 21 and Matthew 24). We will look at what is going on in our world at the moment and how that fits in with Christ’s teaching – and also Daniel’s prophecy. We will touch on some of the key things that some love to talk/speculate about – the beast, 666 etc – and steer ourselves away from speculation to a sensible analysis of our times and how we can live loyally for God today.
June 3rd Talk 4 While we are waiting
The focus of this talk is on how the reality of the return of Christ has major positive and practical implications for us: for example, to encourage us when we fail, to comfort us when we mourn, to motivate us to serve, to get us thinking differently about what our material possessions are for and how they can be used. Rather than being so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly use, if we are properly focused on heaven we will be of major earthly use!
June 10th Talk 5 Judgement Day
In this session we will look at the whole concept of judgement, both for believers and for non-believers. It will focus on both the positive and negative sides of judgement: why it was that in the Psalms the poet rejoices in the idea of God coming to judge and in Revelation John weeps when it appears that no one is found worthy to judge. It will briefly look at the question of hell; and also at the judgement seat of Christ.
June 17th Talk 6 The time of the end
Rather like talk 3 in this session we will look at some of the specifics of timetable and key events that the Bible says will take place. In particular it will look at the question raised in talk 2 of the reality or otherwise of Jesus reigning on earth and what is meant by the Millennium. This of course is controversial and we will consider the major views of Revelation 20. These details are in Scripture not to give us a headache but to make the return of Christ all the more real to us. As in talk 2 we will return to the very practical implications: the danger of thinking that the church should be reigning now (as many down through history have believed) and the importance of realizing that this life provides opportunity for us to learn what it is like to live and serve under the government of God.
June 24th Talk 7 Future life
The focus of this talk will be to look at the Bible’s pictures of heaven – particularly those given to us by the Lord Jesus and the descriptions in Revelation 21. What will heaven be like? Will we know one another? What will we do? The motive is to increase anticipation of heaven and challenge us to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven rather than on earth and live more fully for the kingdom of God.
Stand by me in partnership with Glenabbey are holding a Craft Fair and Pamper Day on Saturday 24th March @ Glenabbey, Ballycraigy Road, Newtownabbey, BT36 5ZZ.
Admission is free and all proceeds are in aid of Stand by Me (previously Kids Alive UK).
There will be a big selection of stalls: Handmade jewellery, ceramics, cards, soaps, jams and chutney.
Also: Manicure/pedicure treatments available for £5 and Glitter tattoos and Nail art for the children!
plus a Coffee shop.
This will be a great day, so plan to come along, enjoy yourself and help support the work of Stand by Me.
In this series we return once again to Genesis and this time to the story of Isaac and (particularly) Jacob. The big issue throughout is that of God’s sovereignty in human history, working out his purposes in the context of individual life-stories, with particular emphasis on human responsibility and learning what it means to live under the government of God.
In the plot-line of Genesis: moving from the call of the individual to the establishment of the nation: from Abraham to Jacob/Israel. It is generally, from the human side, a story of struggle, mistakes and dysfunction! The word ‘Jacob’ means a twister, manipulator, deceiver – and so he proved to be. And yet he was a genuine believer. So there is hope as well as challenge in this story.
Talk 1 March 4 Choices
This will introduce the series and the main theme as above. Then it will focus in on the birth of Jacob and Esau and the contrast between them as revealed in the incident of the selling of the birthright. Esau was a very pleasant person – much more so than Jacob. But Esau was profane – no concept of the sacred in life: for him it was all about satisfaction and fun now – what use are God’s promises when you are hungry? Jacob was a twister – a clever man with an eye for a business deal. He was a genuine believer but tried to manipulate his way to blessing – had to learn the hard way that you don’t do this with God. We will also look at the particular challenges that face 2nd and 3rd generation believers.
Talk 2 March 11 Finding our space in the world
The big issue in this part of the story is the question of blessing. At the highest level it would come through the Messiah and the eternal blessings he would bring. But it is also to be understood at the material level: we have to live. Our journey to heaven involves physical and material realities. We need to learn to be dependent on God in this area as in any other area. We focus on Isaac’s struggle to find his place and work out what God’s presence and blessing means in a hostile world of constant quarrelling, competition, unfair tactics. We will in particular look at the issue of fear in this context of material possessions and experiencing the presence of the Lord with us. Finally Isaac manages to dig a well that he can use! Calls it Rehoboth – “for the Lord has made room for us.”
Talk 3 March 18 Sense and sensations
This talk will focus on Isaac’s wrong-headed and ultimately failed attempt to bless Esau as firstborn, despite what God had told him about the divine choice of Jacob as the line through whom the family/nation would be established. The key issue of the story is how easily we can be deceived, especially when we set aside the Word of God. Isaac made two major mistakes: first he thought that the blessing of God lay in the good things he gave rather than in God himself as giver – he wanted to bless Esau because he liked the way he cooked venison! Second: he chased and allowed himself to be guided by sensation and not by God’s Word. His senses conflicted with each other and ultimately misled him. Two big practical lessons for us: to focus on the Giver and not his gifts and to focus on learning to trust God’s word rather than our feelings.
Talk 4 April 15 God in this place?
We continue the story with the aftermath of Isaac’s deception: the fact that God works out his purposes in history does not remove individual responsibility. Esau chose his own path by choosing to grow up as a profane man. He could not argue: God didn’t choose me so my actions are not my fault. He was responsible: and as Hebrews points out he never repented even though he was full of remorse. (Tears are not a sure sign of genuine repentance.) His real emotion was anger against his brother. Jacob meanwhile is not to be commended for the methods he employed to obtain his father’s blessing. He has to learn the hard way – as we often do – that his methods were wrong and it matters how we behave as believers in God. Through fear of what Esau might do, Jacob now finds himself going out into the world to stand on his own feet. God was gracious to him – in a dream: angels ascending and descending (note the order). Jacob discovered that God was at his elbow – that God’s kingdom is not the remote thing he might have imagined. And God gave him an encouraging message: I am with you… I will not leave you. A great encouragement to all – and especially those going out into the unknown.
Talk 5 April 22 The hard school of experience
We start this session with a great romance – Jacob falling in love with Rachel, protecting her and working for her hand in marriage for seven years! And then the bubble bursts – and he finds himself on the receiving end of a deception. Experience is a hard school. It resulted in Leah being used; it resulted in competition for love. Really difficult – and yet not all gloom: children born and each child named according to the experience and spiritual development Leah experienced. The names of Leah’s children are written into the eternal city, according to Revelation. Experience is not wasted, even in the disappointments of life. We will look in turn at what each of the four children’s names indicate about what Leah learned.
Talk 6 April 29 Wrestling with God
Jacob was a twister, a manipulator, a wrestler. We are given a not very flattering view of his business dealings with the rather strange story of the mottled sheep! Whether God was providentially involved to teach each party hard lessons or whether he really did have a trade secret, it amounts to the same thing: maneuvering the opposition to outsmart them and get the big prize. Business can be like that – but doesn’t morality apply to business as well as every other area of life? The mess that resulted provides its own commentary: it was a family business and it caused havoc in the family. No one comes out of this with our admiration – even Rachel turns out to be a twister in her own right. They use and are used by one another. It resulted in division in the family and Jacob facing the prospect of going home to face the division in his own family that he had been instrumental in causing, and especially facing Esau. Going back was costly – he sent to Esau a huge gift, in effect paying back the things he had cheated him out of. Jacob finds himself alone – and then in the grip of a hand that will not let him go. He does what comes naturally to him: wrestles and manipulates, but to no avail. God touches his thigh and that ends his wrestling days! Again, hard lessons but necessary – the way to the fulfillment of God’s purposes and promises in our lives is not by scheming and manipulating God, as many believers try. It simply doesn’t work – God is God and we are not.
Talk 7 May 6 Being religious or truly knowing God?
This final talk in the series is probably the most difficult. It concerns an horrific incident, involving Jacob’s daughter, Dinah. The prince of Shechem falls in love with her and sleeps with her. He wants to do right by her and marry her. But Dinah’s brothers are furious when they hear about it. They make an agreement: if the prince will submit to their religious rite of circumcision, then they will allow the marriage to go ahead. There is nothing about true repentance and the worship of the one true God: just a matter of changing religion and joining the club. This turns out to be a pretext for taking advantage of the defencelessness of the men of Shechem and destroying them. Even Jacob, the arch twister, is embarrassed by what they have done – causes the family name to stink in the entire region.
This is the mindset of those who are religious without any true knowledge of God or of his grace. They will do anything to disadvantage ‘the other sort’. Even anger at immorality turned out to be a cover-up for religious spite and vengeance, for sectarianism and bigotry.
Jacob had to bring his family to Bethel and challenge them to put away the foreign gods in their own lives. It is so easy to be religious without being Christian – to have religious fervor but no true knowledge of God. If we look on the outside, we might see righteous living, strong grasp and defence of the truth, religious activity and commitment – but what does God see on the inside? Is there any real evidence of grace at work? Are we Christians in name – but full of foreign gods rather than God’s grace?
So a challenging morning to finish this series!
"7 days that divide the world"
with Professor John Lennox
Sunday 26th February, 8pm
At Glenabbey we desire to see more people changed into devoted and mature followers of Jesus Christ as we live out the reality of the relationship we have with him and with one another.
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Ballycraigy Road,
Glengormley,
BT36 5ZZ
Phone
028 9084 9600
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